Review: Sony Ericsson X8

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8 is likely to outsell the rest of the XPERIA droids. It’s neither the best phone in the line-up, nor it’s a phone to excite and inspire but it’s the common denominator. It is right in the middle. It’s an XPERIA for everyone – both size-wise and price-wise. The X8 bridges the gap between two extremes. And it manages to find itself a niche in the process - a niche where it can breathe freely. It’s a place with healthy competition but no big egos around. The X8 is selling for as low as 175 euro and that makes it one of the least expensive Android smartphones on the market.For a reasonable price, the phone offers the feature...

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Wi-Fi Direct to Threaten Bluetooth

You may soon be able to transfer content between Wi-Fi-enabled devices in your home or office without having to set up a Wi-Fi router. On Oct. 25, industry association Wi-Fi Alliance began certifying consumer electronic gadgets that can connect directly to other Wi-Fi devices. The technology is, in effect, an alternative to Bluetooth wireless connectivity. Devices marked with the new Wi-Fi Direct label can connect to older Wi-Fi devices. Mobile phones, cameras, printers, PCs and gaming devices can now connect to each other directly to transfer content and share applications. Devices can make a one-to-one connection, or a group of several devices...

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Android Ties Apple for Mobile Ads in U.S. Market

The amount of U.S. advertising dollars coming from smartphones running Android matched the revenue generated by Apple's iOS for the first time in October. Both platforms had 37 percent of the ad-impression market, according to Millennial Media. Among smartphone vendors, however, Apple continued to lead the field in the U.S. mobile -ad race with a 25 percent share . Google's Android holds a powerful advantage over Apple since the OS runs on devices from multiple handset makers. On the other hand, the iPhone maker's impressions count received an extra boost last month as Millennial began including ad impressions from non-phone Wi-Fi devices such...

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Review: Nokia C7

The Nokia C7 has no intention of breaking the chain of command. It is just a slimmer, simpler and more affordable N8 and comes with more conservative styling. The well-balanced Cseries have received an accomplished leader. The specs are impressive but do well to keep a respectful distance from the Nseries’ finest.The Nokia C7 still gets really close to the N8 in some ways. It’s got the same blazing fast penta-band 3G, a 3.5” nHD AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, a 680MHz CPU and 256MB RAM, which are some good figures for the efficient Symbian OS. Understandably, some things have been left out. Getting rid of that bulging camera module has brought...

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4G

T-Mobile on Tuesday added a touch of confusion to the concept of 4G wireless network technology by labelling its HSPA+ network as a fourth-generation (4G) technology and calling it the largest such network in the country. "As [T-Mobile USA Chief Technology Officer] Neville Ray stated recently, 4G is about performance, and today T-Mobile's HSPA+ network is delivering 4G speeds that match and often beat WiMAX and are readily comparable to what early LTE will deliver," Patty Raz, from T-Mobile's public relations agency Waggener Edstrom, told TechNewsWorld. "T-Mobile is marketing its HSPA+ network as 4G to keep up with the marketing messages from...

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Facebook Casts Wide Net Across Social Chatter

Facebook has revealed its new messaging system, which is designed to seamlessly tie together several different communications media into a single stream of interaction. "This is not an email killer, it's a messaging system that includes email," said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. "We don't expect people to wake up tomorrow and shut off their Yahoo or Gmail accounts."It spans across a user's messaging systems, offering retention of a user's conversation history and a social inbox. "We don't think that a modern messaging system is going to be email," Zuckerberg told his audience at the press conference in San Francisco. "The weight and friction...

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iPad 2: Prognosticators Ponder Plethora of Possibilities

Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) expected to release a new version of the iPad sometime next year, sparking endless speculation about when exactly it will arrive and what features it will tout. Although the original iPad was launched last April, some predictions posit the next iteration will arrive in January, though others give themselves some leeway by forecasting it'll be released sometime in the first quarter of 2011. As far as features go, the idea that iPad 2 will have two cameras is one popular prediction. Another is that it will be a dual-network device able to work on both GSM and CDMA. Some say the next iPad will be thinner. Others say it will...

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